The opponents will be familiar when Mount Union and Wisconsin-Whitewater meet in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl for the Division III national championship tonight at Salem Stadium in Salem, Va.

But there will be a new twist this time around.

The teams have been the last two standing in Division III in eight of the past nine seasons, but Mount Union (14-0) got there this year with a new coach, Vince Kehres.

Kehres is a son and former defensive coordinator under his father, Larry, who guided the Purple Raiders to 21 undefeated regular seasons and 11 national championships in 27 years.

“You can see that they haven’t really skipped a beat with Vince taking over for his father,” Warhawks coach Lance Leipold said this week. The older Kehres retired after last season, when he won his 11th national championship, with a career record of 332-24-3. Leipold dealt him four of those losses.

The Warhawks had won three in a row before last season, when they missed the playoffs entirely while Mount Union gave Larry Kehres a retirement gift with a 28-10 victory against St. Thomas (Minn.).

When Kehres retired in March, but remained as athletic director, his son took over. Vince played for the Purple Raiders and was connected in some way to 10 of the 11 national championships.

“I feel like I got handed the keys to a Cadillac, and I put a coat of wax on it and I gassed it up,” Vince Kehres said. “The football program at Mount Union didn’t need a lot of touching up.”

Especially not with the return of Kevin Burke, last year’s Stagg Bowl MVP and this year’s Gagliardi winner as the top player in Division III. Burke has passed for 3,514 yards and 44 touchdowns with just seven interceptions, and he has run for 1,035 yards and 13 touchdowns, often on play-saving scrambles.

In the last two weeks, Burke has guided the Purple Raiders to a 62-59 victory against Wesley and last week’s 41-40 victory against North Central (Ill.).

The Warhawks advanced by defeating Linfield 28-17 in the quarterfinals, then edged Mary Hardin-Baylor 16-15 last weekend. Leipold, though, said none of that will matter tonight.

Notable

Former North Carolina offensive coordinator Blake Anderson was introduced yesterday as the coach at Arkansas State, becoming the school’s fifth head coach in five seasons. He replaces Bryan Harsin, who left Arkansas State last week to become the coach at Boise State.

• Purdue said its rivalry game against Notre Dame, played annually since 1946 and 85 times overall, will end after next year’s game in Indianapolis and not resume until 2020. The decision to end the series, as well as Notre Dame’s annual games against Michigan and Pittsburgh, is the result of Notre Dame’s agreeing to play five games a season against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents when it joined the conference in most other sports. That also means Notre Dame likely will play ACC member Pittsburgh once every three years. The Irish have played the Panthers 69 times.

• Baylor receiver Tevin Reese, who has not played since dislocating his right wrist against Oklahoma on Nov. 7, is getting the cast off his wrist and said he expects to play in the Fiesta Bowl against No. 15 Central Florida.